The assessment of the risk and hazard posed to humans by the wide variety of chemicals released to the environment relies on measurements of contaminant levels in sources and environmental media, and increasingly on the use of bio monitoring tools. Recently, the World Health Organization and the Stockholm Convention joined forces to coordinate a survey of human exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) through monitoring of milk and blood. Chemical risk management is undertaken by controlling and reducing the amount of substances we are exposed to in everyday life. Sources of contaminants include for example water, air, food, soil, dust, personal care products, or house furniture with three routes of entry, ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact.
Bio monitoring should be understood as the measurement of the content or concentration of a compound, a chemical, a metabolite of the chemical of interest or a reaction product in human tissue, matrix or sorption material.
W. Yantasee et al., “Functionalized Nanoporous Silica for the Removal of Heavy Metals from Biological Systems: Adsorption and Application”, Appl Matter interfaces, 2010 Oct. 2 (10, pp. 2749-2758 refers to the use of several types of silica based materials as sorbents to capture heavy metals. In particular, functionalized nanoporous silica, often referred to as self-assembled monolayers on mesoporous supports (SAMMS), are used to remove selected heavy metals from biological solutions like blood and urine.
US 2009/0118562A1 refers to sorptive sheet materials in which finely divided nanocrystalline particles that react with a variety of chemicals and/or biological agents are dispersed. The sheet material can be used in a wide variety of applications including protective garments, human remain pouches, filtration equipment, absorptive pads and wipes and the like. The sorptive material is capable of sorbing and neutralizing or chemically altering undesirable substances such as toxic agents like chemical and biological agents, odors and odor-causing compounds, and toxic industrial chemicals. In one embodiment US 2009/0118562A1 discloses removal of chemicals caused by chemical/biological weapons from a body being exposed to such agents by placing the body into a pouch comprising the sorptive material.
While it may be appropriate to measure contaminant levels in target organs (e.g. liver or brain), this can in most cases only be undertaken with diseased patients. It is an object of the present invention to obtain alternative materials for detoxification or measurement such as sorption materials or matrices in order to measure chemicals in living organisms. The said chemicals are hydrophobic compounds accumulating in the body; i.e. bio accumulating compounds/bio transforming compounds.
An understanding of the speciation of a chemical in the body is needed to determine which alternative matrix is best suited for bio monitoring. The speciation mentioned in the present invention should be understood as i.a. the partitioning of contaminant between different phases.
A host body should be understood as a human or non-human organism.
A sorption material should be understood as a device comprising one or more phases wherein at least one of the said phases comprise one or more sorbent possessing the ability of sorption of chemicals accumulated in the body.
Lipophilic and persistent organic substances (e.g. PCBs) commonly stored in lipids can be measured in matrices in which their concentrations can equilibrate with concentrations in lipids. These include blood, milk or adipose tissue. The establishing of equilibrium between contaminant concentrations in various matrices or tissues in the body is expected to be a rapid process.
In the present invention, the potential of explanted silicone breast prostheses as a sorption material for detoxification or measurement of compounds in a host body has surprisingly been found as a successful method for routine monitoring of among others lipophilic organic compounds in living organisms. The expression explanted silicone prostheses should be understood as prostheses which have previously been implanted into a host body for a certain period of time and thereafter removed from said host body. In the present disclosure the inventors have found that among others an implant, prosthesis and/or an adhesive bandage as a sorption material will accumulate hydrophobic compounds from their surroundings. Further, concentration of the compound(s) in the sorption material has been found to reach equilibrium relatively rapidly with those in the body.